Former President Jimmy Carter believes that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak “will have to leave” under pressure from a protesting populace.

Speaking at his church in Plains, Ga., on Sunday, Carter weighed in on the emerging crisis, saying he thinks Mubarak will have no choice but to give up his position of power. “[My] guess is Mubarak will have to leave,” he said, according to a report in the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer.

“This is the most profound situation in the Middle East since I left office,” Carter said. In 1978, Carter moderated a peace accord between Israel and Egypt that is still in effect. A group of U.S. citizens were held hostage in the U.S. Embassy in Tehran for 444 days, from late in 1979 until Ronald Reagan was sworn in as Carter’s successor in January 1981.

Carter said “the United States wants Mubarak to stay in power” — a position from which Secretary of State Hillary Clinton slowly backed away in interviews Sunday — “but the people have decided” they want their president of 30 years out of office.

He said that as Mubarak has “perpetuated” himself in office, he’s “become more politically corrupt” and more objectionable to the United States. “Other U.S. presidents would privately tell Mubarak, ‘You have got to have freedom.’”